Margaret Thatcher Quotes

“Wars are not caused by the buildup of weapons. They are caused when an aggressor believes he can achieve his objectives at an acceptable price.”

“I couldn't live without work. That's what makes me so sympathetic towards those people who are unemployed. I don't know how they live without working.”

“No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions; he had money as well.”

“Women have plenty of roles in which they can serve with distinction: some of us even run countries. But generally we are better at wielding the handbag than the bayonet.”

“I would just like to remember some words of St. Francis of Assisi which I think are really just particularly apt at the moment. 'Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.”

“We do not achieve happiness or salvation in isolation from each other but as members of society”

“It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake.”

“It used to be about trying to do something. Now it's about trying to be someone.”

“If a woman like Eva Peron with no ideals can get that far, think how far I can go with the ideals that I have.”

“If your only opportunity is to be equal then it is not opportunity.”

“People are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture.”

“There are some remarkable parallels between basketball and politics. Michael Jordan has already mastered the skill most needed for political success: how to stay aloft without visible means of support.”

“There are too few rich and too few profits.”

“They are all a rotten lot. Schmidt and the Americans and we are the only people who would do any standing up and fighting if necessary.”

“You cannot make an omelet without breaking some balls”

“Object to merit and distinction, and you're setting your face against quality, independence, originality, genius against all the richness and variety of life. When you hold back the successful, you penalize those who need help.”

“Socialism lays an bad egg by killing the capitalism that lays the golden eggs”

“Whether manufactured by black, white, brown or yellow hands, a widget remains a widget – and it will be bought anywhere if the price and quality are right. The market is a more powerful and more reliable liberating force than government can ever be.”

“Constitutions have to be written on hearts, not just paper.”

“We are not in politics to ignore peoples' worries, we are in politics to deal with them.”

“Individualism has come in for an enormous amount of criticism over the years. It still does. It is widely assumed to be synonymous with selfishness...But the main reason why so many people in power have always disliked individualism is because it is individualists who are ever keenest to prevent the abuse of authority.”

“The lesson is clear. Inflation devalues us all.”

“It is sometimes said that because of our past we, as a people, expect too much and set our sights too high. That is not the way I see it. Rather it seems to me that throughout my life in politics our ambitions have steadily shrunk. Our response to disappointment has not been to lengthen our stride but to shorten the distance to be covered. But with confidence in ourselves and in our future what a nation we could be!”

“If... many influential people have failed to understand, or have just forgotten, what we were up against in the Cold War and how we overcame it, they are not going to be capable of securing, let alone enlarging, the gains that liberty has made.”

“Why in the world anyone in America is allowing another language (other than English) to be his first... I don't know”